Shipping Physical Benefits and Limiting Quantity

August 01, 2018Patreon U Team

Not everything is digital, and some of the coolest benefits offered by creators are physical. When creating benefits on Patreon, you can require patrons to enter their shipping information when they sign up, which is a great first step.

If you plan on offering physical benefits for your patrons, it’s important to consider whether the benefit is scalable as you grow your community. From packaging to fulfillment, you’ll be responsible for getting these benefits sent out to your patrons. Setting expectations for these within your benefit description is a great way to keep your patrons informed. To help keep physical benefits scalable, you can limit how many patrons can join a benefit tier by selecting the option to limit the number of patrons in this tier.

The great news is that the Patreon benefit tracker makes it easier than ever to manage benefit fulfilment, whether digital or physical. Now the benefits you owe to patrons will automatically appear in a digital to-do list so you can easily keep track of all your deliverables. This will help win back the hours you used to spend in spreadsheets so you can get back to creating. Learn more about the benefit tracker here.

Keep in mind that, just with digital benefits, fulfilling physical benefits still takes time. From designing and securing the merchandise, to packaging it, to physically taking it to the post office, or scheduling a pick-up… there are many steps. We don’t want to discourage you from offering physical benefits, but we do encourage you to consider the very real time commitment necessary to make good on the goods. We know your patrons will love anything they receive from you, and we don’t want you to burn out in the process. Pick a realistic number to get started, and go from there.

✏ Note: If you’re currently on charge up front, use limited benefittiers cautiously. When a patron stops pledging, they’re removed from the benefit tier. This can potentially cause a situation where your limited benefit can be over-extended.